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And it's true. In a Labour ward, in a constituency with a Labour MP, Mr Straw spends about half an hour on the stumps without a single person having a go at him about Iraq.

Admittedly, Mr Straw only visits seven houses, most of the occupants are committed Labour supporters selected by activists, and the level of political debate is not exactly Newsnight.

"Any worries?" Mr Straw asks an old woman who comes to the door in her socks. "Only old age," she replies, knowing that even New Labour will not promise a solution to that.

Another pensioner invites Mr Straw inside to see her budgie, Robbie. He cheerfully obliges. At another door, a man with a walking stick comes out waving a postal vote. "What do I do with this?" he asks. Not wishing to be accused of filling it in for him, Mr Straw soon backs away.

It is even worse next door. The occupant does not want to speak to Labour because the party has just woken her up.

The only time Iraq gets mentioned is when the BBC's Michael Crick sticks his microphone under the nose of one of Mr Straw's target voters and asks him about the war. The man mutters something uncomplimentary but Mr Straw does not take him up on the matter.

Labour seems to have been fighting a remarkably low-key campaign in the run-up to June 10 and it is hard to believe that the Straw "blitz", which was combined with a factory visit, will make much difference.

But, as Mr Straw inspects clumps of metal in a unit making parts for the aerospace industry, Roger Berry, Kingswood's MP, insists that the campaign is going well. "I've been out three times a day and I'm getting Labour supporters who are still very strongly Labour," he says.

"A couple of months ago, Iraq was coming up from time to time. But it's very rare now. The question is whether we can get our supporters to turn out to vote."

Standing alongside him, Glyn Ford, Labour's one MEP in the South-West, says Labour will "probably be close" to holding its vote in the region.

The Tories have four seats in the South-West, and Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the UK Independence Party one apiece. Mr Ford believes that if UKIP takes enough votes from the Tories, under the vagaries of PR, Labour could end up winning a second seat. After the factory visit, Mr Straw, Mr Berry and Mr Ford troop outside, where the Foreign Secretary lines up for an interview with a local television journalist.